stephanie is: 
zombie!
Man, I’ve been busy and tired!
Last weekend I took Friday off so I could have three days to paint our half-bathroom. We picked out a butter yellow color called “cheerful hue”.
We bought the paint and supplies on Friday when we were out running errands. That night, I did all the taping, taking towel bars and switch plates down, etc… Danny took the back of the toilet off for me since there wasn’t enough room for a paintbrush to fit behind it. He also took down the light and mirror. I covered all of the tile, the sink, and the toilet with plastic, because I am good at dripping paint all over.
On Saturday, I did the primer (tinted to match the paint). The room is small with very high ceilings for a bathroom (about 2.5 feet above the door) so it was a little tricky to paint. I had to use a full size ladder to tape the ceiling, but I was able to get away with a step-stool and a long handled roller for the painting. My arms were sure tired when I finished – I was tippy-toe-arms-stretched for much of the painting.
On Sunday, I did the final coat of paint. By that night I was able to take down all the tape and put the room back together. I hung all of the Van Gogh paintings I have collected over the past few years. I am not a gold-person, but since the bathroom came with brass fixtures and Van Gogh (one of my favorite artists) paintings look so good in nice gold frames, I thought that room would be perfect for them. I also went to the craft store and chose some silk flowers to arrange for the room. I still need to buy some dried moss to put in the vase over the floral foam.
I think the room came together well. It is a very cheerful place to go potty now! In most of the following photos, I didn’t use a flash, so the yellow looks a little saturated and overwhelming, but it is really a butter/lemon color – orange undertone rather than green. The first 4 photo use flash and are closer to reality.
The news segment that filmed here, Wednesday’s Child aired last night. So sad. He is a very sweet job. They did a great job of editing – there had been a lot going on that kept distracting him from the filming. Only 2.5 for the dogs involved made the cut. I think I saw my hand. That was plenty, thanks. I had been dressed in daycare clothes and no makeup – expecting to do dog handling only.
On Tuesday, Dan and I went to a training meeting so we can be dog Adoption Councilors at the Home 4 the Holidays Super Pet Adoption. I am very happy to volunteering this year. We have tee shirts we have to wear over our other clothes. I had bought a thermal shirt to wear under it, but now it seems it is going to be very cold. So we are going to make a quick trip to the mall tonight in hopes of finding polar fleece at old navy that will fit under it. I am also going to look for a small dog breed book and a bag to carry things in (as I will be on my feet all over theplace). We will be working the afternoon shirt, so at least there will be sun for some warmth.
I have been having bad luck with my webcam computers lately. Members may have noticed certain cams not refreshing.
First, my old pre-usb desktop died. I had updated it to run usb and it came with s-video inputs. It ran the s-video camcorder I used as a sleep cam and a usb homeconnect cam for my desk. The old computer could only run OS 9, which was fin, since the only good homeconnect driver is OS 9 or Windows. So, that computer died. Dead dead dead. I plugged the camcorder into my current OS X desktop computer via special firewire, but they don’t make that firewire cable long enough to run up to the bed. I was left with a homeconnect cam and no OS 9 computer to put it on (only one per OS 9 computer).
Next, a few weeks ago, the old school iMac int he kitchen started sounding really bad. It was nearly impossible to do anything on it as it was running so slow and having frequent heart attacks. That computer was OS 9 as well, and ran an iBot firewire cam (a view of where the dogs lie) and a homeconnect (view of the whole kitchen). Dan went ahead and got a refurbished Mac Mini to replace that one (he is going to try to repair and upgrade the iMac for future use). The Mac Mini is running OS X, so we can only put the iBot firewire cam on it. That makes 2 useless homeconnect cams. I hope to get an iSight to get that computer back up to 2 cams.
I keep and old ass Powerbook (running OS 9 and a homeconnect cam) on my nightstand. I keep my webmail running on it and China’s kennel cam (so cute). It is also a night light for me, which Danny hates, but I can’t sleep in total darkness. Last night at 4:30 am we were awoken by a sound like there was a helicopter hovering outside my window. It was the laptop. The sound stopped when I put it to sleep. I woke it up briefly this morning and the sound was still going, so it is back asleep until I can look at it further. It isn’t looking good. If it is dead, that will make 3 unused homeconnect cams. I have one other powerbook (that runs the bunny cam) but wireless doesn’t work on it, so it is stuck in the office. Le sigh.
This is an invitation to all of our friends out there who don’t have any Thanksgiving plans. We would like to cook dinner again at our house. Last year it was us with our friends Ivan, Kollin and Kollin’s wife. It was a lovely evening. Ivan is up for it again this year. Is anyone in need of somewhere to dine? I could put up our Christmas tree and we could all put the ornaments on together. Is that dorky? We have a guest room for you kids who are too cool to live near us. I plan to take off work the day after. I know it is kind of late notice, and most people have family plans, but it is always nice to get together with friends over the holidays when you just can’t be with family.
I had this pre-written, so now that it is lunch time I had a chance to post it.